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Talk:Monarchs of Darnussia
Planned expansion of this into something of a family tree: Something of a template to go on; First principles for historical re-generation: * Royal line followed Agnatic primogeniture at first - females were totally ignored. * Eleonore I, the first Queen, came to power when the original male-only Darntus line ended with no living male-line descendents. She was on the direct line from Darntus I's daughter, who was granted the Duchy of Narikaton. With no "Princes" remaining (Dantonite II's child died young? Or perhaps was murdered), she won the power struggle against other nobles. * From Eleonore I on, the royal line followed Cognatic (male-prefered) primogeniture - sons before daughters, but daughters before uncles. * The heir apparent to the throne is Duke (or Duchess) of Narikaton from this point on. The Duke of Clenon (once established) was given to the head of the "next branch" of the family - where the throne goes if the current monarch has no eligible descendants. Ben Aharon inherited from that position, notably, explaining the Jewish King. But his direct heirs would have inherited Narikaton, had he had any survivors (they were killed in the civil war) * The return to the Darntus-Raux line needs to be explained - how did the throne leave that line, if there were still members of the line alive? * After the fall of the Monarchy in the 1900s, the "Would have been King" line still kept the hereditary "Duke of Narikaton" title, albeit with no legal power. The DofN becomes the Monarch-in-waiting for the restoration of the throne * By the modern day, virtually every Darnussian can claim descent from Darntus I, through legitimate or illegitimate ancestry. However, the noble class is somewhat self-regulating, and generally does not recognize illegitimate children, or lines unlikely to ever inherit a position due to birth order. A lot of daughters with many brothers, or even fourth/fifth sons might be considered noble, but their descendants ultimately wouldn't be, as the first/second sons heirs crowded out the field. Response. As I pretty much created the monarchs with the exception of Darntus I, Darntus II, Simon III, Bob I and Cecil I, I could come up with some explanation. From what I had thought, the Darntus-Raux Family and the Af Ehjnhelm Family have been mixed few times in the history. Latest of them was the marriage of Antoniette I and Gerald Af Ehjnhelm. Their daughter, however, was named Antonia Af Ehjnhelm, so in a way, the throne would have "jumped" back to the Af Ehjnhelm Family from the Darntus-Raux line. And that is what I thought happened before. Back in the 900's when Darntus I's greatgranddaughter became the queen, the line had in some point married into House of Raux. When she became the Queen, the Family Name was changed to Darntus-Raux for political reasons. Then Queen Eleonore married someone from the Af Ehjnhelm Family, thus setting them to the throne. Then Alizee married someone from the Darntus-Raux faimly. They must have been somewhat inbred at that point, which spanned the insane Bob I, who was actually from the Darntus-Raux family. With Bob you can also explain the sudden re-emergin of the Darntus-Raux family. Aharon became the king mainly because of Bob's insanity and the Darntus-Raux family was taken aside from the throne because of him. This also explains the civil war, as the Darntus-Raux family thought the throne belonged to them, but in the end it ended up with House of Af Ehjnhelm. How the Darntus-Raux family returned to throne is beyond my imagination. Easiest way would be having Alizee II to marry someone from their House, thus returning the direct descendants of Darntus to the throne. Actually the line later incorporated to the House of Orléans-Vasser in Rildanor in the 2600's, as Antonia Af Ehjnhelm married Léopold, Prince of Meriath, and they had a son, also named Léopold. The younger Léopold became the King of Kanjor and his daughter, Louise-Elisabeth, is the reigning queen. They have three children Albert, Henri and Madeleine, who are the current youngest direct descendants of Darntus. I have pretty detailed family three of the Af Ehjnhelm Family, House of Orléans-Vasser and Darntus-Raux Family from end of the 2400's to this day, but it really does not help us with the ancient monarchs at all. :: Counter-Response; :: Ultimately, if this gets done, the past has to match the "present" - if you have a 2400s family tree that says someone is a descendent of, say, Cecil, and I have Cecil's line die out in the 1400s, then there's a mismatch. :: Perhaps the best way is to start with who had to be around to ancestor the tops of your trees, and work backwards to Darntus from there. Meanwhile I have to make a couple fixes to other pages to fit this monarch list anyway. :-D Allright, here is the scetch. Some stuff that should be noted: * The picture only shows the "close family of Antonia Af Ehjnhelm", meaning that it doesn't have most of the brothers and sisters of the older generations and their descendants. * These are the "beginnings" of the Af Ehjnhelm Family and Darntus-Raux Family in Modern Era, but the lines go on. * Dukedom of Narikaton actually goes with the Af Ehjnhelm family. * The Af Ehjnhelm Family does not end with Zacharias though, I have not updated that part of the family tree, actually haven't come up with anything interesting so it is on hold right now. * Darntus-Raux Line is the one that claims direct descendancy of Darntus, and the Af Ehjnhelm does not, which is pretty weird because it seems they also direct descendants. Or can we found some way around that and say, they rose to the throne some other way than marriage in 1063? * Alexander Darntus-Raux, Anton's and Antonias Father is actually titled Count of Narik, but I have no idea where that came from. It is possible that the Darntus-Raux family has carried that title since Cecil I. He died at war in Hutori (which by the way should be added to the history of Darnussia as it was one of the participants), which means Anton should have been Count of Narik. But he became Emperor of Narikaton and died without a heir, so does that mean Antoniette was the Countess of Narik before she became the Grand Duchess of Narikaton and later the Empress of Narikaton and Queen of Darnussia? * These titles are truly a mess. Steven Kennedy, 2nd Duke of Tinako was awarded the titles of Duke of Alkavon and Earl of Ghacrow after the Second Civil War, and they continued in their family, which died off in the mid 2600's. So who has the right to claim them now? * From what I have gathered, the following titles have been in use: Duke of Narikaton, Duke of Nihaton, Duke of Alkavon, Duke of Clenon, Duke of Kozaria, Earl of Ghacrow, Grand Duchess of Narikaton, Emperor of Narikaton, King of Darnussia, King of Narikaton (Darntus before the unification war), Empress of Darnussia (Empress Julia), Count of Merenbürg, Count of Narik, Count of Podrueja, Earl of Moete, Earl of Doressa and maybe some that I can't remember. Still getting any sense from them is nearly impossible, but I like your idea of Heir Apparent being Duke of Narikaton and so on, we just have to make some sense who holds the title, or perhaps change it to Count of Narik that was held by the Darntus-Raux family when Anton was crowned. --Lihamestari 21:38, 25 March 2009 (UTC) Also, should we add Julia Greemgam and Sebastian I to the list as they both ruled Darnussia as monarchs, but weren't from the official line? Ok got it As to adding the claimants to the throne, even outside the line, I'd say yes. They were Monarchs of Darnussia, just not from the right blood. Just note that they didn't have verifiable direct descent. As for the titles, we can work that out. I'll make a note of the titles in use, and their significances to determine. I'm thinking Count of Narik was a relatively minor noble branch (as Narik itself is a lesser city of Narikaton, and has been since Darntus' reign), but that particular branch of the family had the charisma to claim the throne (and that explains why they called themselves Emperor, rather than King - similar to the Bonaparte line in France) That keeps their cousins, the Dukes of Narikaton, relatively content. There's probably some sort of noble council which decides matters of inheritance anyway. They CAN select someone other than the King's son, but they have to be really sure the King's son won't be able to win if it comes to a fight, because it's off with their heads if they're wrong. That probably solves a lot of our House problems, too. Well, some of it anyway. Standardizing somewhat the titles - early titles will be more haphazard than modern ones, by necessity, but I'm thinking Darnussia is divided into Duchies (which became Provinces), Earldoms (which are major sections of Duchies - between 2 and 5 per Duchy), and Counties (which are relatively small realms, and remain in modern Darnussia as the local government level, although not run by the Counts anymore). Royal edict ultimately prevented people from holding too many unrelated titles - an Earl could also be a Count, but only of a County within his Earldom, for instance. No one could be a "double" at the same level - you can't be both Duke of Kozaria and Alkavon (because that challenges the King, if you are) When two people of unequal rank marry, their #1 heir would get the higher rank as their inheritance, while the #2 would take the lesser rank. For example, Duke of Nihaton marries Countess of Podrueja. Son becomes Duke of Nihaton, second son or daughter gets Podrueja. When two people of equal rank marry, one spouse or the other must abdicate their holdings, as if they had died that day. If they have children already, the child can inherit the surrendered realm - otherwise it would go to a sibling. I.e., Duke of Narikaton marries Duchess of Kozaria. Kozaria goes to the Duchess' younger sister. The King is exempt from the law, by definition, since there is no one of equal rank for him to marry. (except a Queen, but that's outside Darnussia anyway) Duchies: Narikaton*, Clenon*, Kozaria, Alkavon, Nihaton. Defunct ones of Shirmania and Doressa (the former split to Clenon and Nihaton, the latter became Kozaria) Counties: Named after leading cities, generally. Important Counties (Merenberg, Narik, Doressa, etc.) are effectively Earl-level, due to the importance of the realm they hold. Lesser counties (like Dyspotuniville) aren't, but there are Earls in the more rural regions who largely governed there. The division can actually be simple - an Important Count (cities which are actually named on the maps, generally) has no Earl above him - his liege lord is the Duke. Maybe call the Important Counts "Counts" and make them equal in rank to Earls, except that Earls have "Viscounts" and/or Barons below them governing realms geographically (but not politically) comparable to the size of the Counties. This fits quite well, when you consider that "Earl" is just the UK's version of a "Count" anyway. The correct intermediate level between a Duke and an Earl/Count is Marquess. But we can simply skip that, perhaps, since it never seems to have been used, or been important. I'm not sure if you intended Earl to outrank Count or not - in which case your Earls should have been Marquesses I'll see what I can come up with soon. A few big thoughts: # Darntus the Flying was basically all-powerful. I'm thinking he had at least three wives by the time of his death; his first wife, from Torchvan, his second wife, from Merenburg, and his third, from the mainland somewhere. (Both of the latter wives were mainly political marriages). ## His children by his first wife mostly formed an extinct line, with his sons dying in the unification wars, but his daughters perhaps still out there - they marry into the other major noble lines, to secure the union with the Houses of Roux and Af Ehjnhelm - but not considered House of Darntus because they were "only girls." ## His heir Darntus II and the "House of Darntus" / Darntus-Roux, comes from the second wife. The crown has always stayed within this branch of descent, except when usurpers have taken over. ## The third wife spawned a second, separate House (which also calls itself Darntus, but is disambiguated somehow - perhaps Darntus et Kozer) which went on to populate much of the nobility positions on the mainland. ## Darntus' children through all three wives are considered "legitimate," as plural marriage was not illegal under the Pagan traditions of the time. # After Darntus I, most Kings took only a single wife in their lifetimes (although some might remarry after a spouse's death). # Most Kings have also taken mistresses, and some of these illegitimate offspring ultimately married back into the main line. # After Dantonite II, Darntus had no direct male descendants left - that is, sons of sons of sons of sons etc. - through his second wife. The "Direct Line" ends. The choice was a remaining viable line with his third wife, or a sister of the last King. Sister was closer and smarter, got it, thus starting the "Second Direct Line" where girls counted. # The gene pool was quite shallow by the time we get to Furius I, and it got worse. I'm thinking Furius I could trace his ancestry to Darntus I twice (through Darntus' 1st and 2nd wives) through each of his grandparents. He then had his son marry his sister's daughter, and that son married his own aunt, leading to Bob. This ends the "Semi-Direct" Darntus line. # The current line, the "Indirect Line" still traces to Darntus, but not on virtually every branch, as the former one did. Perhaps the old rules gave extra credit for being related to Grandpa Darntus multiple times, and the new rules don't. ## It also includes far more membership from the Darntus et Kozer branch of the family, which brings in a ton of new genes. One big thought - the Kings have way too long of an average reign. The individual kings themselves are fine, but there should be some bursts of time when you have 2 or 3 kings survive less than 3 years each between. Right now it seems like we have King for 40 years, followed by King for 40 years, followed by King for 30 years - which can realistically only happen if: 1) King's heir is his grandson (with the son between having died), or 2) King doesn't have kids till quite late in his reign. Both of these can happen from time to time, but it won't be all that often. Map of the Duchies and Counties/Earldoms Basically I reversed myself above somewhat, and, except for Podrueja and (arguably) Merenberg, just named the region after the main city. In some cases, I added a second city which was more historically important but less relevant today. On the mainland, multiple cities make up a county, but on the islands, where civilization was older and more continuous, the main city dominated generally, and other cities simply fell into place. Dinsk would be the last Earldom/County created (splitting off most of Podrueja), sometime in the 1800s or so. Others may have been relatively recent as well, however. Each Earl (or Count) may have Barons below them, governing at a far more local level. Probably no more than 8, and in some cases very very few - particularly as a Duke and an Earl/Count have their own Barony within the region generally. Migrant Islands were a County not within any Duchy, in personal fief with the King. In effect, he was the sixth Duke, but his power was miniscule because he could not raise armies or resources like the others could. His special status, however, could make him arguably the highest ranked Count, as no Duke could order him around. The Counts of Narik and Torchvan were always relatively close relatives of the King traditionally, since they controlled the land access to Merenberg. That would explain how the Countess of Narik became Empress as well. Perhaps Merenberg was technically a County, but its Count just happened to always automatically also be the King. (Countess of Merenberg could be just a courtesy title to the King's consort, particularly where she had no other title, being the daughter of some living noble.) So that would basically give us, when the Imperia Narikaton was founded; * Dukes of Clenon - now-distant relatives, having inherited from the last King's Brother back in the 1960s or so * Dukes of Nihaton, Kozaria, and Alkavon - even more distant relations, not really on the direct royal line. * Duke of Narikaton - Claimed by the Af Ehjnhelm main branch, probably the consensus pick for who Would Be King back in the 1960s, but not necessarily the best choice by the 2600s. * Count of Narik - Claimed by a branch of the Darntus-Raux line. * Count of Torchvan - Perhaps claimed by another branch of either Af Ehjnhelm or Darntus-Raux, or perhaps a third family makes its way in somewhere along the line. Compared to when the Kingdom was alive: * Clenon - The "Next Branch" of the royal family (King's brother or uncle generally) * Narikaton - The "Next Generation" of the royal family (King's son or daughter usually - if vacant, the King technically fills the role himself) * Count of Narik - Close cousins * Count of Torchvan - Close cousins ** Either Af Enjnhelm or Darntus-Raux could fill these roles - or possibly one family had one, and the other had the other, traditionally - that leaves Af Enjnhelm the Torchvan role traditionally - and their descent from Darntus I comes from a daughter by his first wife, who happened to be FROM Torchvan, making a close connection to that city sensible - while the Raux family would have been given Narik after it was humbled (and later married directly into the Darntus line somehow, although I'd visualize that a Raux ancestor was also a Darntus daughter.) ** Since a Male Darntus-Raux marrying an Af Enjnhelm produces offspring whose surname would be Darntus-Raux, that keeps Af Enjnhelm from ever gaining "direct" male descent from Darntus I. In effect, Af Enjnhelm are the descendants of Darntus' daughters, while Darntus-Raux are of his sons, from an early age - but both are certifiably direct royal descent, even if they hadn't intermarried so much. That looks great! Now this you can blame on my lazyness. The Dantonite Darntus Era especially is great example of this, as their reigns span over the most booring times of Darnussian History. I had no base information as no one had created it for between 1400-1800. There was over 400 years gap in any info. Actually the entire Dantonite Darntus Era could be completely revised, as it truly was made quickly to get into the more interesting times of 1800-1960. I doubt anyone will miss the Dantonite Darntuses (except the last one) as they didin't do anything. Now that I look at it, Dantonite Darntus V ruled for 79 years? That is insane. We should completely rework the Era. I think you have managed to get much sense in this and we should go with your plan as it answers many questions quite well. As for the Earls, I did not create them, they were created by one other player in the past, but I always thought they were in between of Counts and Dukes. So could it be that the most imporant counties have Earls? Meaning Ghacrow, Ansest, Merenbürg, Moete, Doressa and Podrueja? And other have counts? Counts and Earls would be in the same line, but Earls would be seen in "higher" light as they ruled the most important counties. It would actually make sense, as Darntus burned down Narik after the War of Succession, but did not do the same for Ansest for example. That is why the new-Narik was and is just a mere county. So what I thought back when I started to write down the Kingdom Era of Darnussia: King/Queen/Empress/Emperor The absolute ruler of the country. ::Duke Ruled the 4 (later 5) Duchies ::::Earl Ruled the largest regions of the Duchies ::::::Count Ruled the smaller regions of the Duchies ::::::::Baron Ruled locally Now I never thought there were Counts under the Earls, but hey, if any text written by someone before does not say that there were not, we can always add it if we want. Later of course some regions regained their importance (Narik for example), but the title was not changed to Earl. But I think you have created a good layout of what the Monarch/Nobility pages should be based on and that is what we should go with. Also, check my thoughts on the Darnussians-article. Just a little addition It seems that this guy is the current unofficial Duke of Alkavon and Earl of Ghacrow. That page has not been updated as the Kennedies truly are no longer a world power (and the people who roleplayed with them are no longer present), basically it means that Steven P. Kennedy VIII's only titles these days are the unnoffical ones from Darnussia. : Yeah, well, lotsa luck to him. How that happened, I'm guessing, is the proper Duke of Alkavon sided with the DDR against the Imperia Narikaton, and thus was stripped of his titles and lands by the Emperor or Empress during the war. The spot was open for the Kennedy - but as he is not of noble blood (from Darnussia's perspective - not a drop of Darntus-Roux or Af Enjnhelm anywhere in his veins), it's arguable as to whether his heirs can inherit the title. Probably something that could come up much later. : Indeed, the entire mainland may have very little nobility left, due to the civil war - some few may have been loyalists to the crown, but many would have been important DDR citizens loathe to rebel just for some silly linguistic dispute. I'd save one line - say, the Count of Holdana, who as the only unbroken noble line on the mainland, claimed the Duchy of Kozaria, and was granted it as a reward for loyalty. He couldn't also get Alkavon, due to ancient laws preventing the double-Duke from arising - but his daughter could - so she claims Alkavon while dad's still alive in Kozaria, after the Kennedys have left. Meanwhile, son gets Kozaria. : Flash forward a couple generations since then. There are two "Dukes" of Alkavon in pretence - the Duchess who inherited by blood claim via her father, the Count of Holdana, and the Kennedy, who claims by honor of the Imperia Narikaton. The nobility isn't particularly inclined to resolve the dispute, for political reasons, until the Kennedies are disgraced - at which point they effectively all agree that the Duchess gets the title. Still, legally speaking, the Kennedy claim could still be valid, and resolved in a descendant's favor in the future. Early Houses of Narikaton and Darntus family tree The Council of Eleven Houses was formed to maintain the Pax Narikaton after the wars in the 600s - with the idea that the Council would allow grievances to be aired rather than have them fester into costly inter-Nariki warfare. The Council alternated meeting in Narik and Merenberg, as a compromise, and the eleven recognized noble houses were given equal status - but five were recognized as "great houses" while the other six were generally lesser. The Council did not include the Osters, although a representative of Oster did attend on occasion, and was accorded the twelfth seat, although that representative was not considered nobility. The eleven houses were: # Af Enjnhelm, Rulers sovereign of Merenberg # Raux, Rulers sovereign of Narik # Windwick, Rulers sovereign of Ansest # Strommdor, Rulers sovereign of Torchvan # Merr, Rulers sovereign of Marcele # Af Klempt, Landed Nobles of Merenberg # Af Equidis, Landed Nobles of Merenberg # Darntus, Landed Nobles of Torchvan # Nordt, Landed Nobles of Ansest # Ostera, Landed Nobles of Narik # Anton, Landed Nobles of Narik Each city state (except Ostermark) had at least one house - with Merenberg and Narik having three, Torchvan and Ansest two. House Merr had effectively eliminated lesser nobility, and was a Great House with no vassals. The difference between a Great House and a Lesser House was that the Great Houses ruled their regions with no liege lord above them, and by tradition the rulers of the Great Houses took two wives - a "left" wife, whose children generally did not inherit, and a "right" wife, whose children were the rightful heirs. Danton Dernaton Darntus, the father of King Darntus the Flying, was the younger brother to the leader of House Darntus in the early to mid 700s, sworn to fealty to the Lord Strommdor. He married Sora Af Enjnhelm, a daughter of the great house - a political marriage intended to keep the Torchvan-Merenberg alliance strong. Danton and Sora had three children - a daughter Erikka (who died in her teen years), and two sons; Menkon (born 730) and Darntionus (born 735). A fateful House gathering ruined House Strommdor, in 745, when a fire erupted at a wedding celebration. The men of House Strommdor, discussing plans to move against the Osters, were fatally trapped when a wall collapsed. Also killed was the Lord Darntus and his sons. Anton Strommdor, by then an old man, and great uncle of the former Lord Strommdor, was the last living male in the House. Likewise, Danton was left in charge of House Darntus, but unlike Anton, Danton had two surviving male heirs. With few options, Anton offered Danton a deal - Danton would be named regent to the Torchvan throne, as the highest ranking noble left standing, if he would give one of his sons to House Strommdor to produce the next generation of the Great House. Danton agreed, and Menkon became the heir to Strommdor, with Darntionus remaining heir to House Darntus. Both brothers were quickly married to three surviving daughters of Strommdor - Menkon taking two brides, and Darntionus marrying Timonnia Strommdor, in 748. Lord Strommdor passed away in 750, and Menkon Darntus Strommdor became ruler of Torchvan, with his father as Regent until the elder Darntus' death in 753 left Darntionus as leader of House Darntus. In 753, Menkon and Darntionus went to Merenberg, for the Council of Eleven Houses - both of them going to their first meeting of the council. Both of them were denied a seat, on a vote of 7 to 3 (with only the Merenbergs voting to seat the brothers), on the claim that Menkon rightfully was of House Darntus (and its rightful ruler), and thus ineligible to sit for Strommdor, and therefore Darntionus was ineligible to sit for Darntus. The meeting then ended, when the Af Enjnhelms walked out and ordered the guards to show the representatives of the other houses the way back out of town. A rump meeting of Five Houses then occurred, between the Merenberg and Torchvan houses, where the Af Enjnhelms (considering the Torchvan delegation to be of their own blood, after all) agreed that Menkon and Darntionus were both rightful leaders of their respective houses, Menkon was accorded the dignity of a visiting head of state, and military affairs were discussed. It was agreed that Darntionus would travel to Shirmania to lead a Torchvan army, in coordination with a Merenberg army moving on Moete, which was then held by the Osters. It was the Moete campaign that taught Darntionus his early lessons in military tactics. In 756, the Council met again, this time in Narik. Pressure was placed on the Narik faction to seat the Torchvan nobles, under threat of war. This time, the Torchvan nobles were seated without dispute. Marcus Windwick was named to Preside over the council, 6-5 (Oster not attending), and the meeting resolved nothing. In 759, the Council met again, in Merenberg. The Presidency moved to Timon Merr of Marchal, who was backed by the Merenberg and Torchvan delegations. This time, the Osters were specifically not invited, due to attacks on allied cities in Shirmania. Two armies were ordered assembled at Marchal and Torchvan, to sack Oster in revenge. Marcus Windwick was named commander of the North army, and Karvan Af Enjnhelm would lead the South army. Karvan selected Darntus to be his Lieutenant, having fought together in Shirmania. The attack was a dismal failure - the North army was crushed almost before it had left sight of Marchal, and retreated. The South army made progress until an ambush was lain for it in the highlands above Oster. Karvan Af Enjnhelm was killed, and Darntus took command of a fighting retreat. Rather than pull back to Torchvan, he circled around mistakenly believing the North Army was close, and lay siege to the walls of Oster. The siege lasted a month, before news arrived that the North army was already back home, and reinforcements were about to attack his army's rear. Darntus led his army under cover of darkness up the foothills, and laid an ambush for the Oster rescuers, but had to withdraw afterwards for lack of supplies to maintain the siege with. The action, while technically a failure, was still seen as a victory for the young General from house Darntus. When the council met in 762, Darntus was nominated for President, but was defeated on a 6-5 vote by Marcus Windwick, who was becoming popularly known as The Coward. A faction of House Roux, led by Wynmer Roux privately met with Darntus and Menkon, suggesting that they would prefer to back a successful leader, but their cousins who led the house were more worried about house politics than victory or progress. At that council meeting, Darntus was suggested as commander of an expedition to Alkavon, in revenge for the Alkavon attacks on Nihaton. An objection was raised that only the ruler of a Great House could be named a General of Narikaton. Therefore, Menkon was named General, despite never having commanded troops in the field, with Darntus as his lieutenant. When the fleet left port, Menkon had remained ashore - effectively making Darntus the General, bypassing the council. Darntus' army crushed the ill-prepared Alkron tribals at Alkronton (destroying the city utterly), won four lesser battles convincingly, and was laying siege to Ghacrow, when news arrived from Narikaton that ended the campaign - his brother and his brothers sons had been assassinated. On his return to Torchvan, the new Earl Darntus was out for blood. He immediately suspected that either House Windwick or House Raux had been behind the assassination. He contacted Wynmer Raux, with terms for an alliance. Wynmer then tried (but failed) to take Podrueja from the Windwicks, and his sister Moira was promised as Darntus' second bride. The 764 council meeting in Merenberg was fateful. Windwick and Raux were at each others throats over the attack at Podrueja, and Darntus arrived claiming he now held two seats (Darntus AND Strommdar). Worse (to the northern faction), he introduced Moira and Timonnia as his brides, directly claiming the privilege of a Major House. At the meeting, he directly accused Windwick and Raux of the murder of his brother and his brother's sons by stealth. The Merr faction walked out of the meeting in disgust, proclaiming neutrality in the dispute, but cursing the other nobles for how far they had fallen - murder and intrigue. Merenberg, Torchvan, and Oster (the latter hoping for war between the other states, most likely) fully backed Darntus' special petition to be named Governor to Prosecute the Wrongs Committed. Ansest and Narik declared war on each other, each blaming the other for the Battle at Podrueja, and the murders which had caused such turmoil. It took a while, but when Narik finally fell, Darntus repaid Wynmer. Narik itself had to be destroyed, but Wynmer was left standing as the new leader of House Raux, and he pledged his fealty to Darntus, turning the tide in the war for good. In an irregular council meeting held on the ashes of Narik, Darntus was proclaimed King of Narikaton. As King, Darntus took the unprecedented move of taking a third wife, from House Merr, which obviated the need to conquer Marcele. He then led his army, bolstered by Marcele, to siege and capture Ansest, deposing House Windwick, and then turned to Oster, where he led the united island against the lone holdout. Darntus was, in 775, officially proclaimed His Majesty, the Earl of Torchvan, Lord Mayor of Oster, Governor of the Council, King of Narikaton and Shirmania. Jaques Af Enjnhelm retained Merenberg, and was also granted Ansest, becoming Earl of Merenberg and Ansest. Wynmer Raux was granted the title Count of Narik, Duke of Shirmania. Timon Merr retained Count of Marcele with no change. Other nobles were granted holdings in Shirmania, which was now undisputably in Narikaton control. With the revenge for his brother's death settled, King Darntus turned to the unfinished business with the Alkrons on the mainland. When the Grand Kozar was defeated in 780, Darntus took his daughter as his fourth wife (his first wife having passed away during the campaign, so he never actually had three at the same time). The Duchies of Alkavon and Doressa were granted to his two eldest sons, with other sons taking Earldoms at Ghacrow (not then the capital of Alkavon - that was near what is now Szawana, then called the City of Alkavon) and Grel (which then included what later became Holdana/Red Stad). By his four wives, Darntus had at least 25 children - that number does not include children who died young, or illegitimate children he had produced. His daughters were married off to other houses, and to foreign ruling families at Bailon, Beluzia, Malivia, Luthori, and Beitenyu. Only seven of his sons actually survived to produce families of their own - the Kingdom of Darnussia passed to Darntus II, four sons populated the Mainland (who collectively became known as House Darntus-Kozer, distinguishing from House Darntus-Raux on the islands), and the other two became the Earls of Osterlanden and Torchvan. Darntus II, who before taking the crown had been styled as Prince of Narikaton as heir apparent, passed that title to his own son. Later, when the direct father to son line ran out, so did the Prince of Narikaton title. Instead, one of the Earls became Duke of Narikaton. At some point, the Countess of Merenberg became wife to a King of the line, and the style Countess of Merenberg became the official title of the Queen Consort (or King Consort), as the County of Merenberg became part of the Crown itself, and House Raux largely held Narik while House Af Enjnhelm held Torchvan (inheriting it from House Darntus down the line, just as the Crown Line had inherited Af Enjnhelm's main holding of Merenberg). Throughout the middle centuries of the realm, the Houses Darntus-Raux, Af Enjnhelm, Merr, and Darntus-Kozer were the four Great Houses, each one of which could trace their ancestry directly to Darntus the Flying, through his sons or his daughters. Houses Anton, Nordt, Af Klempt, Af Equidis, and Windwick were the five Lesser Houses, holding only Baronies, although many of them could also trace to Darntus. These houses ultimately continued meeting regularly, becoming the proto-Parliament (House of Lords style) to regulate ascension to the throne and other titles, taxes and grants. This Council first met after the death of Darntus I to confirm his son Darntus II to the throne, and to restore the loyal factions of House Windwick to the Council. By tradition, a seat was always left vacant for House Strommdor. After Darntus I, Kings settled for two wives, as did Dukes and Earls - the distinction between Earl and Count is the right to have a second wife, but that distinction became meaningless when Simon III the Pious proclaimed Christianity, and abolished all plural marriage. ::I'm going to use this information as official source now that I'm writing down the House of Af Ehjnhelm article. It also enlightens the history of Merenbürg (obviously) and now I think different pages for the City-States should be created instead of just this one, as there is so much potential for things that could have happened. Also the histories of other noble families (House of Raux/Darntus-Raux for example) should be made, so if you come up with anything interesting for them, just write it. --Lihamestari 20:14, 28 March 2009 (UTC)